Thursday, March 10, 2011

Wisconsin GOPers ram through union busting bill

Using the procedural trickery Republicans are famous for, the Wisconsin Senate stripped out the budget aspects of Gov. Walker's contentious "budget repair bill" and passed just the union busting portion in a lightning fast vote.

“In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin,” said Mark Miller, the leader of the Senate Democrats who fled to Illinois on Feb. 17 to block just such a vote from occurring. “Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.”

Meanwhile, a reported 7,000 protesters re-occupied the State House. The usual wingnut bloggers are claiming that the protesters locked the doors with steel handcuffs. However, the eyewitness accounts I was seeing on twitter last night said it was the State Police who were doing that in order to keep more people out. Notably, the state police were called in because the local, and I assume Capitol, police refused to disburse the crowd and instead joined the protest. Also saw a rumor that the Mayor of Madison had joined the protesters.

GOPers apparently think they were being very clever. It remains to be seen who will get the last laugh. I expect the recall efforts will gain some significant steam now.

6 Comments:

Actually, not keeping it a secret anymore - that there is no cost saving element in the ending of collective bargaining - assumes that anyone still believes his lies. Since this was begun with the claim that he'd run on a proclaimed platform to bust unions, there really was no secret anymore about Walker's motives. Just telling a lie no longer looks like any basis at all for believing what right wingers tell us.

Earlier, I sent in my contribution - ten times more than I gave last time. And if I am just as angry tomorrow as I am today (highly likely), I'll send another contribution - 100 times more than today - until the %$*& *@#^%$ are removed from office.

tu quoque that most juvenile of defenses. Do you really think you can sell the idea that the Republicans are no more involved in procedural trickery, having set all time filibuster records, than Democrats. And even if that were true, it's really all about distracting us from the real question of how to repair the damage they caused with 8 years of borrow, spend, and cut revenue policies.

Money makes it's own rights, labor has to fight for it. Why do Rove and the Kochs have more collective bargaining rights than Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones, the teachers?

The scary part is it's not just Wisconsin. Every single state where Koch or his ilk bought the gov and statehouses is turning over established laws and basically enacting every item on the crazy con wish list -- by stealth. While we're distracted by the union stuff, they're doing so much more I couldn't list in all in one comment.

And TDC, I'm fondly remembering all the times you complained about the GOPers blocking the business of government in DC. How you urged the majority to "ram through" everything they wanted in the first two months. Oh wait...

Adding, the WI Dems offered a compromise and only left when it became apparent that Walker was going to ram through his agenda with no changes. It was a protest over actual tyranny, not the imaginary stuff the GOPers peddle.